The thing about teaching is that it's often about survival mode. Your body and mind hold it together as long as they can before they sputter and give out completely. Too bad Robin didn't get the memo and continues to wake before 6 am.
I've spent a lot of time reflecting about my return to the classroom. I had a truly great group of kids, an awesome teaching partner, and a supportive administration. Teachers are a kindred spirit. It feels so good to be back among my people. I missed continual adult contact. I missed feeling like I was something more than "mom." I missed using that part of my brain. My return to the classroom made me feel capable and competent (most of the time). Dave enjoyed not carrying all the financial burden. I also liked feeling like all the money I spent on a Masters degree was not going to waste.
The kids liked hanging out in my classroom before and after school. Robin especially developed a bond with a couple of boys in my class. The mornings were full of business with students coming in early for help or to just have a place to get stuff done. It was often chaos. By the end of the year, Robin knew exactly which classrooms to go to for candy. He could be seen or heard running down the halls, often with open arms, ready for hugs.
I don't know if Dave truly appreciated how hard it was to actually get any work done with the kids underfoot. A student one time marveled at my balancing act as I helped her with test corrections while corralling Robin on my lap.
The kids frequently captured our mornings and afternoons together on my phone.
Probably the most unexpected effect of going back to the classroom was the impact on my faith. It's hard to not think about your beliefs when you are teaching religion every day. It was eye opening to view the religion lessons through an adult lens. Religion class gave me more opportunities to teach mindfulness and address the social emotional aspects of adolescence. My biggest goal was to make students see the Catholic faith as something alive and bigger than themselves. I wanted them to go beyond answering every question with "have faith, clean up the earth, and pray more." I tried to help them see the connection between the Old Testament, the words of the prophets, and the reality of the world we live in today. It was pretty big stuff sometimes. I got a thank you letter from a student yesterday that mentioned how she liked that I brought real life into religion. That made my day.
There were a lot of ups and downs this year. It's not easy being both a teacher and parent in the same school. Really it's just not easy being a teacher. Luckily, this year the good outweighed the bad and you can't always say that about teaching.
In my office right now I have a pile of textbooks and lesson plans waiting to be turned into IB units. Eileen is sitting next to me, calming down from a massive freak out after seeing a spider. Toys are spread throughout the house. Robin is in serious potty training (aka I'm running laundry 24-7). Linus is in a precarious balancing act of being awesome and being amazingly frustrating. I'm already missing my 6th graders a little bit. Out the teaching frying pan and into the mom fire.
I'm excited for warm summer days, adventure, and lots of good books. Curriculum planning can wait just a little bit. Right now I'm excited for Dave to get home so I can relax with a good book and maybe binge a little Netflix. It's June and I've got the whole summer ahead of me.
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